The invention relates to a means for processing ply material, particularly for collating, or the like, material parts of e.g. film or paper-like material correctly positioned. As a result of this, for example, one or more ply parts, such as labels, protective films or the like may be applied to on one or more backing parts of sheet material. The material part in each case may be formed by a continuous web of material or single sections, such as sheet layers and may in each case, in the running direction or crosswise thereto, be larger than the other part or the affixation field or cover field which is covered by the smaller material part after collation. The two material parts may be joined to each other bondingly or resistant to shear as well as parallel directly juxtaposed, e.g. via a film of adhesive, substantially thinner as compared thereto, which may consist of a cold or hot glue.
The invention relates in particular to a means as set forth in the German patent application P 44 24 429.0 to which reference is made in relating the configurations and effects therein to the present invention. The material parts, affixation and/or cover fields are mostly defined at right angles or full length by straight edges or margins parallel to each other. The ply parts may be supplied endlessly from a reel storage or transferred as prestamped labels to the backing part. If the backing part is an endless web or the like defined in the running direction on both sides of the affixation point of the means under tensile stress in conveyance units, then this web may be subdivided into individual sheet plies by longitudinal or transverse partings following application of the ply parts. The parting lines are predescribed with respect to the stated fields prior to or during application of the ply parts, e.g. in the form of perforations, whereby in the running direction ply parts or affixation and/or cover fields applied one after and/or juxtaposed may each have the same or different size and shape.
After collation the material parts are required to assume with respect to each other a wanted orientation within a tolerance field which e.g. with respect to an ideal orientation allows for a shift or twist in all directions of less than 1 or 1/2 mm. Expediently offset outwardly by more than this tolerance or more than one millimeter and less than 5 or 3 millimeters are the margins of the cover field with respect to those of the affixation field, so that the edge of the smaller material part, which as a rule is that of the ply part, slightly protrudes past the affixation or bonding field. Should e.g. due to malfunctioning of the material part feed, particularly of the ply part, an orientation materialize deviating from the wanted orientation correspondingly strongly, then the affixation surface area will not be totally covered on collation of the material parts, it instead remaining partly exposed. Such non-covered regions may result in trouble in further processing of the material parts or of the backing part in the corresponding work stations, e.g. due to it tacking to machine components.